I'm a Teaching Assistant - Ask Me Anything

[GetTheGoodLookingGuy]

(Jumps on bandwagon!)

I currently work in KS2, but have worked in KS1 as well.

What age group is KS1?

How do you get on with the teachers you work with? One of my friends teaches and had awful trouble with the TA who was in her class.

Would you ever become a teacher?

Do you have favourites?

What level ta do you get paid?
My wife gets paid level 2 even though she has the BA Hons degree (level 6 I believe ) and the pay is absolutely terrible. £10k a year for 3 years at uni too

What age group is KS1?

KS1 is Year 1 and 2, so 5-7. KS2 is Years 3-6, ages 7-11

How do you get on with the teachers you work with? One of my friends teaches and had awful trouble with the TA who was in her class.

I work with a great teacher, who I'm working with again next year. We both got very excited when we found out a couple of weeks ago. It is really hard when you don't get on with the teacher, though - I've previously done voluntary work as a TA with a teacher I didn't get on with. On one level, you just have to be professional and get on with it, but it is really hard when you don't get on (obviously you don't have to be best friends, but you're working very closely together, and it's hard if you don't at least have a friendly working relationship.

Would you ever become a teacher?

I get asked this a lot. I don't think so, because I dislike the reducing of children to data, and all the pressure to achieve results (although strangely I love the data itself - I love marking tests!). I know teachers struggle with this too, though - but I think it's an aspect of the job I'm really glad doesn't fall to me.

I also get very nervous in front of people, and dread the thought of lesson observations and teacher interviews. I'm absolutely fine in front of a group of children, but put another adult at the back of the room and I'm sure I'd go to pieces!

Do you have favourites?

Diplomatic answer - no. Honest answer - yes, but I'd never let the children realise it. But I work more closely with some children than other, and do develop a soft spot for some of them.

What level ta do you get paid?
My wife gets paid level 2 even though she has the BA Hons degree (level 6 I believe ) and the pay is absolutely terrible. £10k a year for 3 years at uni too

I think I'm Level 2 as well - the pay sounds about the same. It's not great, but it's okay for where I am at in life at the moment - just me, no family to support. I think I would probably have to reconcider in the future if I were to have a family, but right now I love it, it suits me, and the pay is manageable. I also have a degree (in Education Studies).

What do you think the main problems facing today's children are? Computer games, parents being on the phones too much, etc. If you could change one thing which parents do / don't do, what would it be?

Do you see more of a split in the girls and boys playing together now or was it always like this? I wonder if the way toys are so gendered now has anything to do with it. I am amazed by how they self-segregate. Some young boys are very "macho" for want of a better word. How do you respond when you have a kid saying "girls can't play with trucks" or "boys can't play with dolls" etc?

What do you think the main problems facing today's children are? Computer games, parents being on the phones too much, etc. If you could change one thing which parents do / don't do, what would it be?

I think one of the biggest problems is the huge expectations placed on children. My brothers sat their GCSEs this year - and they're much harder than they were when I sat them (less than 10 years ago). The Primary curriculum has recently ramped up expectations for children, and those who had already started school before the changes are really struggling, because "they haven't had time to catch up with the changes in curriculum" is aparently not a good enough answer to "why hasn't this child made expected progress".

This is hard for all children, but when there are children who (as there are in my school) have English as their second (or third, or fourth) language; are refugees; have SEN; have a parent in prison; are caring for parents or siblings with disabilites, mental health conditions or addictions; are in foster care; are bounced around from relative to relative; come to school without breakfast; ect, it's an even bigger challenge for them.

Do you see more of a split in the girls and boys playing together now or was it always like this? I wonder if the way toys are so gendered now has anything to do with it. I am amazed by how they self-segregate. Some young boys are very "macho" for want of a better word. How do you respond when you have a kid saying "girls can't play with trucks" or "boys can't play with dolls" etc?

I don't think boys/girls playing together has changed much since I was at school. Boys and girls usually play separately (as we did when I was at school, as far as I remember), but there are groups of boys and girls who play together, usually some kind of pretend game. It doesn't seem much different in KS2 to KS1 - in fact I would say maybe they play together more in KS2.

The most contentious issue at our school is football - officially Friday is girls' football only, and the rest of the week both boys and girls can play. In practice, only one girl ever plays with the boys. The group of 5 or 6 girls who play football on a Friday seem quite happy to only play football on a Friday, and play other things the rest of the week. The football playing boys struggle when it's not their turn for football (as well as girls' only on Fridays, Years 3 and 4 alternate morning play and lunchtime the rest of the week), and find it hard to find other things to do, and usually end up offering advice on the sidelines, which the girls/other year group don't usually appreciate.

I haven't come across much "only girls can play this game" / "those toys are for boys", so I'm not sure how I'd respond to that. It's either so deeply ingrained by this age they don't even comment on it, or the children at my school are not so defined by stereotypes. I'd like to say it was the latter, but I suspect it's the former.